Apple Employee Breaks Code of Silence

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From top to bottom and for decades on end, Apple is about as need-to-know as it gets. Even when it's not about a certain CEO's health.

Just whisper about the shadow of a hint of speculation on an upcoming release or product and you're in line at Starbucks asking for an application, tout de suite.

Getting an executive or engineer to talk is nigh impossible, but at the brick-and-mortar level? There's an anonymous leak, according to PopularMechanics.com.

"Anonymous" works at the retail level. S/he tells tales about attempts at employee personality tweaks, competition for sales, how MobileMe sorta sucks and the evil behavior from many customers.

Customers: "Sometimes it's like working at McDonald's, with better pay. I've never been treated so badly in my life."

Company credo: "Sometimes the company can feel like a cult. Like, they give us all this little paper pamphlet, and it says things like—and I'm paraphrasing here—"Apple is our soul, our people are our soul."

Unlocked iPhones: "We usually have to tell them that if they unlock their iPhone, it won't work. That it's going to be like a $700 paperweight, and that the antenna will fry itself on T-Mobile. Of course, that's not true..."

The goal of it all? Getting promoted to The Genius Bar. "Who doesn't want to be a genius?"

Published at 8:22 AM PST on Feb 17, 2011 | Updated at 5:32 AM PDT on May 5, 2011